At a joint Select Board and Budget Committee hearing, members of both groups recommended Wilton voters approve 21 warrant articles at town meeting and not implement one. Five of the recommended warrant articles faced additional deliberation before a decision was made.
Residents gathered in Town Hall on Tuesday, Jan. 27, and provided feedback on the proposed warrant articles. In total, 30 warrant articles were listed, eight of which didn’t receive a motion.
The five contested warrant articles that were eventually recommended for approval faced questioning from audience members as well as Budget Committee and Select Board members. The articles were numbers 13, 16, 18, 25 and 26.
Article 13 proposed adding $10,000 to the Unanticipated Legal Expense Capital Reserve Fund. Town Moderator Bill Keefe asked the board and committee what the purpose of the legal expense fund was.
“It was always presented to me as a war chest in case any major litigation was brought against the town,” Budget Committee Chair D.J. Garcia said.
Keefe, who was in the audience, said he thought the fund should now be big enough to economize it.
“The town has been very fortunate as we’ve dodged some bullets,” Town Administrator Nick Germaine said. He stated there were a number of issues over the years where the town potentially could have tapped into the fund and used it all. Germaine added that situations the town is now facing may require the funds in the future.
Article 16 looked to add $75,000 to the Public Works Garage Building Capital Reserve Fund.
Keefe questioned whether the fund was necessary. “Do we need this to purchase the property or is it just a down payment? The number seems astronomical to me. It’s going to have to be bonded,” he said.
“The Frog Pond was set as a possible site for the garage,” Select Board member Tom Schultz said. He noted that building on it will get push back from conservation groups and that he didn’t approve of it. “It’s a wetland and I was never in favor of building on the site.”
“The fund was established in 2017. As for what the purpose presented to the town by the Select Board members was at that time, we’re not sure,” Germaine said. As the Select Board understands it, the fund can be used to purchase land, engineering proposals or the building itself. “Whatever amount is left over after the initial purchase can then be allocated as a down payment or used for other costs related to the project,” he said.
Members of the board and committee recommended Articles 13 and 16 be implemented. Article 13 was approved 4-2 while Article 16 was approved 5-1. Schultz abstained from both votes.
Warrant Articles 18 and 25 also prompted debate.
Article 18 proposed adding $80,000 to the Bridges Capital Reserve Fund, all of which would come from general taxation.
Germaine said the town has three bridges it is working on. The bridge work is expected to cost $350,000 each.
“We have King Brook Road Bridge by the Kimball Physics campus which has taken longer than anticipated,” he said citing COVID and other factors as reasons for its delay. However, he said construction on the bridge should start this summer or fall.
“The other bridges are the Old County Farm Road Bridge along Route 101 as well as Temple Road Bridge, both of which cross Blood Brook,” Germaine said.
Garcia said assuming state funding stays in place, there is an 80/20 split for payment by the state and town for the bridge repairs.
“We don’t have a large pool of money to cover these upfront costs,” Schultz said. “We can’t afford not to put money in the fund as the maintenance costs are going to increase annually regardless of the decision.”
The warrant article was recommended on a 4-2 vote, with Schultz abstaining.
For Article 25, Keefe highlighted his concern about passing a voters’ decision onto the Select Board regarding large purchases.
The article proposed establishing a revolving fund to accumulate and spend Highway Block Grant funds received from the state. Each year, the grants would be deposited into the fund and allowed to accumulate. They would not be considered part of the town’s general fund balance.
The issue Keefe raised pertained to wording in the latter half of the article.
It states: “The town treasurer shall have custody of all moneys in the fund, and shall pay out the same only upon order of the governing body and no further approval is required by the legislative body to expend. Such funds may be expended only for the purpose for which the fund was created.”
Keefe said the language made it appear as though the Select Board wanted to remove voter approval authority from the decision-making process for using the funds. He was worried about upsetting the system of checks and balances by shifting approval authority from the voters to the board.
After listening to his concerns, the Select Board and Budget Committee recommended Warrant Article 25 be implemented.
One last article of note was Article 26, which proposed adding $79,000 to the Fire Department’s budget “for the purpose of purchasing twenty sets of PFAS-free, NFPA-compliant, Globe G-Xtreme3.0 Pioneer protective clothing, jackets, and pants,” which would be covered by general taxation.
Before recommending it be added to the budget, the committee raised concerns the article’s terminology was too restrictive.
Wilton Fire Chief Norm Skantze said because a single vendor offered the department a substantial discount if it only purchased through that vendor, the terminology had to be specific. He stated he had no issues with the article being approved as written.
Article 10 was the only one the board and committee did not recommend. The article proposed adding $100,000 to the Dam Repair Maintenance Expendable Trust Fund, which would be funded through general taxation.
According to Garcia, Wilton has three dams that need to be repaired: New Wilton Reservoir Dam, Frog Pond Dam and Sand Hill Dam.
“We almost have enough money to fully repair two of them,” he said.
Keefe said, “This is one place where you can cut the budget by a substantial amount. If you reduce this to $50,000 a year or less, you’d still be doing your jobs. In my humble opinion, Frog Pond shouldn’t be in the proposal as fixing it is useless.”
Schultz noted the town will receive engineering proposals for repairing and removing the Frog Pond and Sand Hill dams.
“It will cost about $1.5 million per dam regardless of whether they are repaired or torn down,” he said, adding that if the Sand Hill dam fails, there is a high probability for loss of life. “We’re planning on doing something with these dams. We currently have $631,507.07 in our capital reserve fund for them.”
The majority of the Select Board had additional questions about the engineering proposals, but Germaine said it is hoped an agreement can be made at the next board meeting on how to deal with the dams.
On Article 10, all Select Board and Budget Committee members present, with the exception of Schultz, recommended the article not be implemented; Schultz abstained.
Motions weren’t made on warrant articles 1 through 5 as they are to be addressed by residents in Town Office polls on March 10. No motions were presented for Articles 28 through 30.
Wilton residents will have the final say on the warrant articles at the annual meeting in March.
To see the full list of warrant articles, go to the town website.